ST Microelectronics Files LENR Patent

The Switzerland-based company ST Microelectronics, one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world, has filed a patent application to the United States Patent Office for a Reactor for energy generation through low energy nuclear reactions (lenr) between hydrogen and transition metals and related method of energy generation. The application was filed in February of this year, and the inventors are listed as Ubaldo Mastromatteo and Federico Giovanni Ziglioli.

The reactor described contains:

a reaction chamber having an energy port;

a reaction unit disposed in the reaction chamber and configured to allow an energy-releasing reaction between first and second materials; and

an energy regulator configured to control a rate at which reaction-released energy exits the reaction chamber via the energy port.

The patent explains that a reaction is achieved by the absorption of hydrogen within an active metallic material (could be a number of metals such as Ni, Pd, Pt, W, Ti, Fe, Co and their alloys), applying heat, triggering the reaction and using a mechanism to control the reaction.

Interestingly, the patent doesn’t beat about the bush and try and disguise the fact that this is a LENR reaction. They cite Pons and Fleischmann and explain that LENR is a legitimate reaction, even though it is hard to control. Since it has been claimed that USPTO has been known to deny cold fusion patents based on the fact that they don’t accept the legitimacy of the science, this is an interesting approach.

ST Microelectronics is a major semiconductor company with 48,000 employees (11,500 working in R&D) and with revenues of over $8 billion in 2012. Having them working the LENR field could be a signal that leading scientists and researchers are now taking LENR seriously as a viable energy source.

I don’t usually post here, but it is important to note that the research was supported by the US Navy: NSWC (National Surface Warfare Center), Indian Head Division

Carl Nelson

How do you know?

Anonymous

The patent application itself mentions the fact.

Carl Nelson

I asked because I couldn’t find the reference. Must be blind as a bat because I still can’t find any mention of the NSWC in the patent app.

Bob

This is a patent application, and far from an issued U.S. Patent. The Feb. 2013 filing is based on a Feb. 2012 Italian patent application.

Anybody can get a copy of the application, and check on its status by visiting the USPTO’s Public Pair website, http://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair and entering the application number, 13/775444

Jim

Uh, warning flag in the patent text?

> Use any one of these metals (list of over a dozen metals)
> Use any one of these triggering mechanisms (list of 5 triggering mechanism -“or combinations”)
> Lots of ways to use semi-conductor technology to make “it” happen

Reads like “how to build a framework for a micro-LENR device” (should someone actually come up with a reaction that can be induced by the combination of metals, hydrogen and triggering mechanism.

Pessimistic view: looks like homesteading, hoping for rain.

fortyniner

I agree. Generic apparatus and lists of possible elements may indicate a ‘catch all’ trolling-type patent. However, if I (as STM) had really discovered a working process and wanted some patent protection without disclosing the full details, this would be a good way to conceal the finer points of my device’s construction and to hide the real elements concerned. A number of other CF patent applications seem to use a similar approach (although some of them are almost certainly examples of trolling).

fortyniner

For some reason, these generic patents always remind me of the Monty Python sketch, ‘How to do it':

“…this week on ‘How to Do It’ we’re going to learn how to play the flute, how to split the atom, how to construct box girder bridges and how to irrigate the Sahara and make vast new areas cultivatable, but first, here’s Jackie to tell you how to rid the world of all known diseases.

Jackie: Hello Alan.

Alan: Hello Jackie.

Jackie: Well, first of all become a doctor and discover a marvelous cure for something, and then, when the medical world really starts to take notice of you, you can jolly well tell them what to do and make sure they get everything right so there’ll never be diseases any more.”

GreenWin

A year ago May 2012 Joe Zawodney of NASA LaRC, recorded another video describing his impression of W-L theory and his work on a materials analysis “chip.” That appears to have been scrubbed or moved somewhere. Anyone have a working link to that video??

Thanks Veblin. This is a device that appears able to test a variety of materials reactions – utilizing the 48 tiles in a single exposure. What’s interesting is the miniaturization – a process micro-electronics manufacturers know plenty about.

It seems about time for a Zawodny update. What’s NASA’s present role in this evolving LENR drama??

Roger Bird

So, who do we have of big business firms or consortiums signing on to LENR+. Etiam Oy, STMicroelectronics, and the VC company in New York that is helping Brillouin.

And Rossi is keeping his a secret. Although, I can’t see how Rossi could be eating and keeping himself sheltered if he didn’t have someone to help him financially. So we know that Rossi has someone, we just don’t know who. But Rossi does have Elforsk. I know, because Elforsk did not respond to my two emails and they already said that they were supporting the testing.

But Defkalion, if I recall, has no big company, although they are hoping for one soon. I believe that Defkalion has a team member or two who are wealthy, so we can’t say that we know that they have some big company helping them.

This is very positive and exciting. And my pinched nerve is so much better that I am almost ready to dance in the streets. (:->)

Buck

Roger,

I think we should not forget Toyota and Mitsubishi.

If memory serves me, these two firms were involved very early on after the debacle with Pons&Fleischmann 24 years ago. Whether they are still involved, I don’t know; I’ve not read anything.

Omega Z

They are still involved.
In fact I believe 1 of there researchers was at the ICCF18.

Defkalion seems mostly funded by Xanthoulis as equity holder.
There are others investors, but they seems to me smaller (data from latest ToVima interview, and radio24).
Maybe they have borrowed some money.
I don’t feel they already have the license money…

maybe is it why they want to go public on TSX.

Patronym

This article is written by a chinese.

Daniel Maris

Has anyone seen this yet –

Looks like this guy’s involvement in cold fusion goes back to the 1990s! How have we missed him?

The US Patent office track record would be to
say it is akin to a perpetual motion machine and
deny it for that reason. The mass media will then
say they are fringe tin foil hat kooks and fusion
reactions are impossible at room temperature.

Wow, what bunk.
Reread it. It actually has nothing to do with actual LENR design or implementation. From reading the abstract, it assumes the energy production is already designed/configured. This patent is like me saying “method for assuring ice cream transport conditions assuring minimal loss due to residual heat transfer”
bunk.
Leo

My response to Leo:

Dear Leo,

We don’t use the word “bunk” around the pro-LENR camp. (:->) However, I was slowly working up to that point at http://www.e-catworld.com/ I said that it seemed like it was about someone trying to get in on the action without actually having anything of substance. I am glad that you saw that. It was a very difficult read and my eyes almost glazed over permanently.

The only thing good about it that I could see and I said as much is that it proves that a really big company with over 11,000 R & D employees knows about LENR and wants to get in on the action. I think that this patent application is a way to setting their company up to be able to legally blackmail whoever gets the real deal that actually creates excess heat with lawsuits. The real deal company will simply pay them off so as to avoid litigation. This is, unfortunately, a common practice.

Roger Bird

Daniel Maris

I think Leo’s the one who hasn’t read it. There are some very specific instructions about how to facilitate the reaction using EM frequencies etc. More importantly is the fact that it takes as granted that LENR has been demonstrated in the lab.

Roger Bird

Daniel Maris, I think that you are right; I don’t think that Leo has done the necessary preparation to appreciate or understand LENR. He and I see eye-to-eye on kefir, which is sort of edgy, but not even close to the edginess of LENR, but apparently when he uses the word “bunk”, I fear that we do not see eye-to-eye on LENR. I think that he may be doing his homework now on LENR because he usually responds back quickly and I haven’t heard from him in many hours. Let’s hope.

So, Daniel, what about this “EM frequencies”? I didn’t see that. I had to protect myself from permanently glazed eyes and had to stop reading. I thought that the patent application was an empty shell.

daniel maris

The reactor according to an emodiment may further include means for creating at the active material a field chosen among:

a magnetic induction field of intensity ranging approximately between 1 Gauss and 70000 Gauss;
an electric field of intensity ranging approximately between 1 V/m and 300,000 V/m.

In this way the passage and the stationing of ions H- on the active material and the maintainance of conditions suitable for the prosecution of the nuclear reactions triggered by the triggering means may be favored. Advantageously, these means may be in communication with the control module and modulated by the latter in a similar way with respect to what has been described above for the triggering means.

http://www.shake-speares-bible.com psi

Are we having fun yet?

Roger Bird

I’ll be having more fun when even a skeptopath who has been busy “debunking” finds it impossible to deny.

Daniel Maris

Not long now I think.

Sanjeev

[quote] Since it has been claimed that USPTO has been known to deny cold fusion patents…..

Its an age old claim, but only a claim, not reality. US Navy got it with lenr written boldly everywhere in their patent, so did Cravens. So it seems that its possible.

Most likely either you need a big gun (Navy) or lots of green paper to stuff into their mouth (Apple), and they grant it happily. Its a government culture after all.

STM has got a lot of green paper, so it should be easy.

Owen

It seems like future patents could reference these older patents and they should be accepted. The door is opening…

Evan Wade

So should I be buying some ST stock?? (:

http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/ M. Simon

They make nice microprocessors.

Sanjeev

Looks like I asked too early. So I repeat it here : Is there a connection with Celani here ?
Anybody got any idea ?
STM was collaborating with Celani using his wires and also published positive results (but not the whole experiment). So it seems that Celani contributed to their tech. And the reason for not publishing the details and data of the replication is most likely that they had commercial plans.
If Celani is involved, then big congrats to him for jumping ahead of all in this race for lenr. STM is an ideal (and very big) partner.

http://www.lenr-forum.com barty

The patent is from 2012, so I think their last successfull experiments are not mentioned in this patent.

Sanjeev

Well, he is not involved directly, it seems. STM has filed two patents in 2000 and 1995 on the same invention, so its neither Rossi nor Celani. You can find the links on vortex.
This one seems to be their third attempt, so they are not a newcomer in this field.

Curbina

They are into this since 1995??? had no idea, can you provide us some links to those applications, if you know or have them? Regards!!!

The first one (Pekka Soininen) looks interesting, especially as it suggests a theoretical mechanism (acceleration of H ions in electrostatic fields generated by ‘nanoscale particle accelerators’ that provide sufficient energy to overcome the Coloumb barrier). Apart from that, the text embodies a number of features that are becoming ‘standard’ for most CF reactors. I’m going to have to read it several more times I think (any of our physicists care to weigh in?)

The second link is actually the ST Microelectronics patent application.

GreenWin

The STM application appears to heavily leverage their knowledge of semiconductor manufacturing. My impression is they see the opportunity to shrink, miniaturize, the active area, a thermal sensor and an efficient thermal conductor, capable of removing and radiating up to 500C in concentrated heat.

Think any large power semiconductor operating at high current, – it has to dissipate heat rapidly (thyristers. triacs SCRs, etc) – a specialty of semiconductors makers. A LENR “reactor” build at this scale could be very small – perhaps three cubic inches. IF the heat sink & coolant system was efficient i.e. water cooled circulation like used in fast quad core CPUs.

STM does not claim electrical generation as far as I have seen. They seem happy to generate high temp heat in a compact form factor – ideal for all sorts of industrial applications requiring heat. An interesting application that can rely on the USPTO issue to Navy/JWK of the SPAWAR cold fusion patent.

Things er, heating up fast these days.

Babble

I haven’t read the patent, they are usually a slog to go through. Based on your comments I don’t see a great use for very small heat generators, unless you want a LENR hair dryer. Heating water to steam for electric generation or desalination would require a larger structure and lots of heat which must controlled to prevent melting of components.

The demo by Defkalion was pretty compact but they only heated water and did nothing with it. I hope Rossi has some patents applied for. Even if they were denied because of unproven science, he could get them reinstated once the science is accepted.

Greenwin

Bobble, the replacement of resistive heating elements in toaster and convection ovens is one rather large market. Convection microwave ovens need heat for convection fans. Low cost cook stoves are needed by millions. Instant hot water in the field would be a good application.

Heat is energy and there are lots of small applications in need of heat. Should STM produce a Fully integrated LENR heat source – they will come.

Blah43

Proving the concept beyond a reasonable doubt would be huge. Manufacturing any type of LENR device, even a hair dryer would be huge. Ganging up cheaply manufactured devices would be huge…

fortyniner

Microelectronics manufacturers have many techniques for mass production that might allow very inexpensive manufacture of small CF heat sources. Such technologies could lead anywhere, but possible applications for low-output miniature heat sources might include permanent ‘batteries’ that incorporate high efficiency TEGs, small frost protectors/pre-heaters for pipework etc. in extreme cold applications, ‘personal heaters’ for boots or other wearable items and in car seats, ‘disposable’ heaters for canned food, soil heating in horticultural environments, heaters in equipment such as laser and 3D printers, incubators, DNA replicators and so on.

There would be no shortage of takers for this kind of device if it became available.

Admin: Auto link generation doesn’t seem to be working. I had to write this one in HTML format (href=).

http://www.e-catworld.com admin

Yes, you are right, 49er. Trying to figure out why it isn’t working.

fortyniner

I nearly missed one of the most important applications for small heaters – home brewing!

Roger Bird

Unfortunately your idea also would include disposal problems and thus pollution problems. Such heaters by themselves would be useless outside of their context, and it would be difficult to recycle their material. And it is likely that they would contain toxic material.

fortyniner

“contain toxic material.”

Unless this technology could be made to work using nickel, copper, tungsten (in minute quantities) or other (relatively) inexpensive and non-toxic metals, I doubt it could become viable.

Couldn’t be much worse than the lead, cadmium and mercury in many batteries and other devices such as fluorescent light bulbs that are currently chucked in their millions when they expire.

Curbina

It’s the Italian branch of STmicroelectronics (the Italian Stmicroelectronics SRL), and the patent claims priority of an Italian patent application. It’s surely encouraging to see such a big company taking this bold step, the only problem I see is that they do not provide any data to support the inclusion of the metals beyond Ni and Pd, so they will probably have to do a lot of work to deal with the patent examinator. The other interesting thing is that the claim section has two major groups of claims already cancelled, so this patent has been in the works from some time, as it claims priority with an Italian application of 2012. This is really encouraging news.

Sanjeev

Its a common trick in patents to cover as much ground as possible, so they mention many elements, but may not necessarily use all or some may not work. If you read the Finnish patent on their lenr device, almost half of the periodic table was claimed.

I do not know what patent officers do in such cases. They probably check only one embodiment, but I have no clue.

cx

Wow this is kind of big. Is this the biggest/highest profile company to file a lenr patent

artefact

like buttons are looking good

http://www.e-catworld.com admin

I got some requests for a way to like/dislike posts in the user survey, so I thought I’d try and find a good solution. The previous like/dislike program I used crashed the system, so here’s hoping …

gianluca

I think that if STM move into LENR is now the moment to belive!

Roger Bird

I agree. It seems difficult to believe that they would throw money at LENR which they did not seriously think would work. And people like this, big business people, Swiss big business people, are serious people. Just composing that application and the picture, even if fake, would take several man-weeks to make it seem plausible.

Roger Bird

This is my preliminary thoughts, even though I have a lot of difficulty understanding the patent. To show you how stupid I am, I don’t even know if this is an application, the acceptance of an application, or the reality of a patent granted. I think Frank said that it is an application. Big deal.

They don’t have a working unit, so their COP is exactly zero. I am basing this on their constant use of the word “embodiment”. They are probably “patent settlement mining”, trying to gouge anyone who comes up with the real deal. However, they may have developed some clever hardware surrounding the reaction. I don’t know. I do know that the unit looking from above is either a square or a circle because Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 are exactly the same.

This is absolute proof that a very large company is serious about LENR and thinks that it is real. This should quiet a few skeptopaths. For me, I am glad that things are moving along.

http://www.e-catworld.com admin

Yes, it is an application, Roger.

Owen

Things are heating up. More competition is a good thing for consumers.

Wow, nice sleuthing. And its coherent with the fact that STmicroelectronics SRL is the Italian branch of STmicroelectronics. This is IMHO, a huge step forward to the mainstream acceptance of LENR.

Kåre Lund

Interesting that so many manufacturers of semi-conductors are moving into LENR.

Is there any conclusion that can be drawn from that?

Gordon Docherty

I believe it is because of their expertise and equipment in micro- to nano-scale engineering and high frequency switching that provides them with a clear advantage in this area.

Kåre Lund

What about Intel?

Any reason to believe they are looking at this technology?

GreenWin

Intel should be aware of the LENR effect, but until the Navy/JWK US patent issued in Spring – they may have though it noncommercial. The STM filing will wake Intel and they will likely put a couple researchers on it.

Creating the metal lattice is predisposed to the various deposition techniques used in semiconductors. Finding a unique thermally resilient metal lattice design falls directly under the capabilities of microelectronics. IF STM can demonstrate a prototype – Intel will be all over it.

Timycelyn

A fascinating sideline is the possibility of endothermic LENRs. I seem to remember that these were discussed at some length as predicted, but of little interest beyond possible curiosity status unless they were part of, say, disposing of fission waste.

However, these guys might be VERY interested. Miniaturised heat absorption right next to/inside of a heat generating computer chip! Heat transfer issues become seriously reduced, small in situ cooling, wouldn’t this allow any given chip to be driven a lot harder?

Am I hopelessly out of date on the needs of the ongoing cascade of generations of microprocessor, or is this still potentially very useful?

Nixter

In the ST Microelectronics patent, (US20130243143), they do give specific reasons regarding the use of a Semi-conductor manufacturer to fabricate parts of such a LENR device.

From the Patent;

These technologies may include, in particular, deposition techniques and photolithographic techniques currently in use in microelectronics and for MEMS devices. The deposition techniques, such as, for example, sputtering and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition), allow the deposition of metals of various type on various materials, mainly semiconductors, for example, to form heaters and resistors, in the form of very thin layer, also of nanometric sizes, having a thickness controlled in a very precise way, thus obtaining a savings in the amount of metal used. This saving turns out to be relevant especially in a large scale production, considering the generally high costs of the suitable metals that can be used, and, in particular, the high costs of some of them (for example, platinum). With the photolitographic techniques, it may be instead possible to define the geometry on the plane of the thin metal layers deposited in a very precise way.

Roger Bird

Thank you, Nixter.

The text that you presented sounds like they are grasping for purpose. Yes, using their techniques, they can lower costs. But considering that nickel powder is already very cheap, I think that they are trying to prove that they can play too. In one of my other comments, I implied that I thought that they were trying to get a foot in the door. This grasping for purpose supports my hypothesis.

Anthony

Another avenue worth considering: Mitsubishi & Toyota explained that their tungsten=>platinum/osmium transmutations occured across microlayers of Pd/CaCO… perhaps they hope for rare earth metals? Tell everyone that their device generates heat, and that ‘the charge needs periodic replacement'; recycling of ‘spent’ chips extracts valuable metals, at quantities which are too small for personal incentives, but profitable to the manufacturer/recycler?

Mannstein

Large semiconductor companies employ solid state physicists who are experts in crystallography, material science, thin film deposition etc. Their expertise is directly applicable in developing LENR technology.